Love Song & Love Shine (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781087849010)

Love Song & Love Shine are two uplifting and heartwarming stories in one volume - two compelling, romantic tales about strong, resilient women, who courageously overcome rejection and learn how to move on; special women who find themselves, and the caring, devoted men they truly deserve.

Love Song introduces readers to Carolee Austin, aspiring teacher and wannabe actor, who gave up her dreams to support her husband through law school, and to provide a loving, nurturing home for their two sons. When her now successful, attorney husband leaves her for a sexy, young associate in his law firm, he lays the blame for his betrayal at Carolee's feet. He accuses her of letting herself go, of getting fat, old, and boring, and she believes him. Carolee is devastated. She wonders who she is without her husband, and how she'll carry on alone, as a single parent. Finding solace in the kindness of her old friends, and the music of a popular singer of love songs, she finally begins to heal and to move forward. To cheer their mother, and thank her for the sacrifices she's made for them, her sons enter her in a "Make Dreams Come True" contest, sponsored by a popular television talk show. When she wins a trip to appear on the show, tickets to see her favorite singer in concert, and much more, Carolee finds herself, and love, again.

Love Shine gives readers a glimpse into the life of a kindhearted, generous woman, who sacrificed her future to care for the aging grandparents, who raised her, and to attempt, unsuccessfully, to save the family homeplace from foreclosure. Leslie Grace Willow is plain. Willow Spring Farm has been sold for a pittance, so she now lives in a tiny bungalow with her orange tabby cat, and waits tables at the local diner, where she patiently endures the ridicule of the thoughtless townsfolk. Tall and thin, with piles of unruly hair, too-full mouth, and huge eyes, covered by thick glasses, Les, as she's not so affectionately nicknamed, has been bullied and made fun of since childhood. She's had to grow a thick skin. The taunting darts slide off of her now, without pricking her tender flesh. But when a handsome stranger appears at the diner, a man who sees past her plain exterior to the striking woman inside, Leslie's beauty shines through; she's transformed and, for the first time in her life, she's in love.